Fire Ox Vs Metal Dragon

Crafty & Random...

Monday, February 23, 2009

A Boy and His Quilts

Well, Nikolas has obviously grown quite a bit in the last three months. And, he has already amassed a fine collection of three quilts.First one started, I believe, was this colorful one which I planned out.I had made a very similar one about 2(?) years ago for friend DVP 's son DAP. I used a number of curated prints from baby quilts made as gifts for others - a fish print from a quilt for C&D's baby, alligator prints from quilts for R&M's boys, dragon prints from E&A's baby's quilt, etc. By Nov 13, when I entered the hospital for what turned out to be a week's bed rest, the quilt was not done. Some work happened while little N was in the NICU for the remainder of November & December, but it was not a terribly creative time. Finally, the day N came home from the hospital, my mom took it back to PA to do the quilting & binding, so it has much more masterful quilting than if I had done it myself.Next, 2nd started, but 1st finished: the quilt my mom planned and made for little N.I love how the blocks come together and form larger patterns. Also, the quilting is fantastic - my mom machine-quilted motifs from the main patterned fabric - images like a cat, a dog, a trumpet, etc - into the main blocks.And finally, a quilted play mat that I thought I might make from remnants of K's work jeans. Then I remembered how little spare time I've had lately, and how unlikely it is I would make such a thing, so I suggested it to my mom.And she made it so much better than what I had imagined. It's made from pieces of my jeans from high school in the 1980s, so there are fancy embroidered back pockets, as well as my own additions - bleaching & doodling. It has plaid flannel sashing between the blocks & the jeans pockets can hold little toys.The greatest success on the knitting front has been the burp cloths from Mason-Dixon Knitting & the this-could-be-the-last feather & fan blanket. The little guy certainly does seem to love his blankie (equating "sleeping soundly while wrapped in" with "love").